Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It's already been stated. It's a waste of space, and it creates more pollution. I know people like to argue "Yards"- yet Sprawling suburbs are probably where the majority of America's obesity problem comes from- So it's not like these people are really taking advantage of "the space" they have. They rather drive 5 miles to Wal-Mart and get some potatoe chips and HoHos. (I'm kidding)
I don't necessarily hate them, I just don't like how they're only getting more and more popular. At least aim for higher density suburbs, it's quite possible to have a nice sizable yard and be in a suburb with a population density of 5,500. Towns now-a-days are losing character and soul, give these new booming towns some kind of thriving/active community- your not going to achieve this if a town can't even be considered walkable. (Hell I know of sprawling neighborhoods without any sidewalks.. it's nutty to me)
I like it but I bet people will show me on here why its so bad (and thats good I want to know) but I dont understand why everyone is against it.
I think one of the biggest problems associated with urban sprawl is the effects it has on wildlife and nature itself. Also, it can cause traffic congestions, increased water pollution, and increased air pollution.
You guys do know that there are sprawled suburbs with there own clubs, shops, restaurants, markets, etc, etc. And sometimes the only reason why people go to the cities are for work, sporting events and concerts. Sprawl is inevitable. Not everyone can live in the city, the cities would run out of room. And eventually the cities would start annexing more land to make more room. You can't really stop sprawl when your city is growing fast enough. People gotta live somewhere. What happens when there's no more space? Imagine if the 15million or so people surrounding NYC just decided to move into the boroughs.
I'm with you on the first half, but the second half is not connected.
Just off the top of my head Google, Apple and Facebook all began operations in San Francisco's sprawl aka Silicon Valley. That's just a short list.
And, as city dweller, I can assure you there are plenty of vapid people in urban areas.
1. Silicon Valley is a pretty unique situation. It's the Capitol City of the High Technology industry. It's hardly your typical suburb.
2. Facebook started in very urban, tech-heavy Cambridge, MA. Google started as a research project at Stanford.
However I do agree that the suburbs are the homes of many start-up companies...this is due to the fact that suburbs are so cheap and start-up companies usually lack significant amounts of capital. This is contrary to the earlier claim that suburbs are expensive...suburbs thrive for the exact opposite reason: because they're inexpensive.
Anyways, suburban sprawl is often bashed (especially here) for reasons many have mentioned: it's inefficient, wasteful, high polluting, etc.
In my opinion, I'd also call sprawling development extremely ugly. It's nearly 100% reliant on "Big Box" retail.
I'm not totally against sprawl though. I know it's there for a reason and understand why people like it. It's just not for me and so if I move to the burbs, I'll try to move to an old, historic suburb which has a village center in-tact.
I am against sprawl for all the reasons stated before here especially the enviornmental factors but also one major reason is I want to be able to do many things without having to use a car. With dense enviornments, I have the choice to be able to walk somewhere and it is feasible but in sprawl enviornments it is not feasible to walk to or take public transportation to get to 90% of the things I need to do in my daily life.
also just because you cannot contemplate shopping without a car, doesn't mean it isn't easily doable and that millions of people do not do it.
People who drive their car to go shopping normally go once a month... or even less frequently. loading up and then going back when you're running low.
People who walk to go shopping normally shop about once a week, if not more. The result is much smaller trips that are easily accomplished without a car, especially considering i have to walk only about 1/4 of a mile to get to multiple shopping locations including a farmer's market. bigger trips when i actually go to the supermarket which is less than a 1/2 a mile away i take my foldable shopping cart, which anyone in the city knows about. i've attached a picture as i imagine you probably don't know what they are out in the country.
personally i find this way of shopping to much more convenient and cost effective. shopping isn't a 3 hr chore that you do once a month and spend 100s of dollars on in the city. when you don't have sprawl shopping is an enjoyable half an hour errand that you do weekly. as we're buying groceries for a much smaller time period we often only buy whichever meat is on sale. if i wanted chicken breasts but thighs are sale, i'll get the thighs and chances are next week the breasts will be on sale.
you're also able to incorporate fresh fruit and vegetables in your diet much easier when you have a farmer's market right around the corner. we go there weekly to stock up and usually spend less than 20 bucks to return home with our bags bulging with produce. a whole bushel of broccoli costs a buck, 4 red bell peppers for a buck, it's ridiculous how much cheaper it is than a grocery store.
plus if we ever find we want to make something and we don't have something we need, we're just a short walk away from having it.
both my mother and my grandmother have liked a lot of things about living in the suburbs since they've moved there, but they both def hate the new way they have to shop.
my grandfather who is from italy used to be able to go to the local stores around him and get all kinds of varieties of food that he now can't find in supermarkets. every time we go visit him i'm always getting him his proscuito, sopresseta, aged provolone, fresh rabbit, figs, etc.
when you've got density of 10,000 ppsm and you're in an italian enclave you can have a succesful business where all you are is a butcher, or a baker, or a cheese maker. this isn't stuff of the past, this still exists in philly. in sprawl? no way. your only options are the huge supermarkets.
i mean people talk about variety like they have it in the super market. please. there's variety sure, you have a whole aisle of commercially made cookies and commercially made cereal. basically a bunch of variety of the same disgusting processed crap.
if you really want variety. you come to the city. there's an asian grocer a few blocks away from me and i'm still not exactly sure what half the stuff in that place are, but if i wanted fresh eels or fresh squid for some reason i have that option a 10 min walk away, good luck getting some fresh eel at walmart.
I'll keep this short. I have lived in all types of areas. I choose not to live in a densely populated area but can still get fresh food, don't spend 3 hours in a supermarket and that little shopping cart you felt like posting, I am pretty sure I was using one before you were born.
Oh, and fresh seafood, pass the store everyday on my way home that gets it from the docks a few blocks away.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
